Don't give up, it's a tricky thing to do. Just keep observing and trying out. Look how layered this kingdom hearts hair is, lower layers are darker than the upper layers. That helps giving it a bit of structure and defining the shapes a lil better. Otherwise it'd look messy! Why don't you try making a single strand with no…
In the case of the above example if you're trying to get it like the image in your original post, the material, not the mesh is what is letting you down. It's overly complicated and missing the subtle gradient from dark to light. There are a few ways to get that gradient. You can uniquely unwrap each strand and paint the…